Mejdi Schalck, who won the silver at the Boulder World Championsip last month, has done Bio sharma graphie L1+2 (9a) Rocher de Beverau. (c) Arthur Delicque

“I was the 3rd ascensionist of this route after Mathieu Bouyoud and Esteban Daligault my friend. I made it on my 4th session. The route have a first part in 8b+ where you don’t have to be pumped, then you have a pretty good rest and a hard part with 15 physical moves on big underclings 🦾”

In this year's Boulder World Cup the 19-year-old did just three events, scoring two wins and one third place finish. He has also skipped most of the Lead World Cups and his next competition will be the European Qualifier in Laval in October, where the winner will get an Olympic ticket.

Felipe Camargo, who did El Bon Combat (9b) in 2019, has done the FA of Auto Retrato (9a+) in Serra do Cipó. Already this year, he has made the FA of two 9a's including Gran Reserva (9a) which was a ten-year-old project he did last month.

" After sending Gran Reserva I saw a possible harder start and bolted it. Auto Retrato changes the 8a+ intro to an 8b+/c intro, making it way harder so I give it 9a. It's a power endurance route! 50 moves with no good rest...finishing on a really cool 7C+! Really unique holds on the serra do cipó limestone. It took me some 30 sessions including also Gran Reserva."

Can you tell us more about the process?
The conditions never aligned, the season here was really bad this year and I had to try everything...first, I was climbing at midnight with a Makita Fan hanging on the rope! I fell off the very last move and had to go home for a few events ...when I came back, the rain came and it started to get really humid during the night...Today I finally switched my strategy, woke up at 5 a.m. started warming up at 6:20, and had two really bad tries where my body wasn't understanding why the hell I was climbing so early 😂😂 I finally sent the route on my third try of the day at 8:40AM!

Katie Lamb has become the first woman to climb 8C+ by completing Box Therapy (8C) in RMNP (Misc/Unsorted). Daniel Woods made the FA back in 2018, and only Drew Ruana and Sean Bailey had repeated it prior to Katie. Box Therapy is a sit start to an older 8A, put up by Tommy Caldwell, and it comprises of 18 moves on a 50 degree overhanging granite face located at 3,200m. The 25-year-old has previously done six boulders graded 8B+. (c) Keenan Takahashi

On Instagram Katie comments, "A lot of my progress can be attributed to just showing up. I know where I can be and keep coming back until I get there. It’s an asset, but can make climbing less fun. Recently I’ve been feeling less excitement, but more joy."

Andrea Chelleris, who this spring became the U-14 Italian Slalom Champion, in skiing, has done Halupca 1979 (9a) in Mišja Peč. "I tried the route for 5 days (8 tries plus one last year) last week I went so close to sending it but it was too hot so I came back today with a discrete [improved] temperature that allowed me to send the route."

Andrea made the 8a headlines for the first time at age 9 when he did his first 8b+ and last year he did Pure Dreaming Plus (9a/+). This summer he was #5 and #6 in two Euro Youth Cups and #22 in the Youth World Championship.

What is your autumn plan?
I will go to Helsinki to do the European Youth Championships, hoping for a good result after a very bad world championship.

What does a normal training week look like for you?
I train 4-5 times a week. I travel 50 minutes to Climbing ranch and I always train there. I do power sessions, endurance training and power endurance. I'm doing more power sessions because I need to improve my explosive power. Mainly spray wall training but when I need to do onsight training I do lead training [climbing].

Janja Garnbret, who last weekend won the Arco Rock Master's Speed Duel, reports on Instagram that she has made a quick ascent of Underground 8c+/9a). The 24-year-old Slovenian has been the best female climber in the world since 2016 when she won her first, out of eight, World Championships. On rock, she onsighted her first 8b at age 15 and one year later she flashed La Fabelita (8c). She has also onsighted two 8c's but has not yet spent much time projecting routes. Her only 9a, she did at age 18 in a mere five tries.

Martina Demmel has done Chri-Su (8c) in Allgäu. The 21-year-old, has also onsighted eight routes 8a to 8b this summer, which makes her #1 in the 8a female ranking.

”Probably the route that I'm the proudest of yet/lately as it reflects my improvements in antistyles over the last 3 years (13 tries) what allowed some continuous progress. I haven't only struggled with the athletic start but also the resistance part higher up which threw me off once after finally connecting the start... Such an unforgettable moment, especially because of the fight all the way & epic condis during the send (huge thunderstorm around me)! Special thanks to Isi, Roland & Catrin for the memorable times at Rotti! Not finished yet here;)”

Can you tell us what a normal week for you looks like?
I don't have something like a normal week except for the months when I'm in school (from October - February): it's a special programme from the Bavarian police offered for professional athletes with police school from 7 am till 3 pm including 2 days when it finishes 2,5 hours earlier. So I would train (often with the national team members around Munich) for about 3-4 hours on Monday, Wednesday & Thursday + some strength & antagonist exercises two times a week in the morning. If the weather is good enough, the weekends are reserved for rock😊💃😁... the rest of the year varies a lot every week because it depends on the different phases I'm in😅😉.

Jules Marchaland, who was #10 in the Briancon World Cup, has done Punt'X (9a+) in Gorges du Loup.

"Puntx was a hard mental battle for me, I fell 20 times on the last two moves (and they are not super hard). It was a bit like a dream route for me because when I was younger I always saw some strong climbers trying the route. I did it in 18 sessions and fell at the top on my 7th."

How will you prepare for the Koper WC the next weekend?
Just climb outside, and do some endurance training in the gym, classic ;)

Karoline Sinnhuber, who has done 134 boulders 8A to 8B, has logged her first boulder in 2023, Nepomuk (8A+) in Silvretta. Previously this year, the Austrian has done three 8b+ graded routes.

Can you tell us more about Nepomuk and why you took such a long break from bouldering?
I twice had inflammation in my ring finger - first time on the right side, after my pulley injury, and then from December on, on the left side 🙄. So I couldn‘t climb, train and crimp as hard as I wanted - that‘s why I ended up on the rope 😁, the holds are more finger friendly than on boulders. Since I booked my flight to Red Rocks (which got cancelled, thanks Lufthansa), I tried to get back into the bouldering game.

The boulder itself has 25 moves, so the timing couldn‘t be better to try this one now with my lead shape 😂 The first part of the boulder is Niviuk, which was one of my first ever boulders in Silvretta. It took me quite a while to figure out the sequences again, but when i found it, I managed to get through to the transition part every time.

The transition consists of a rest on heels and toes, before you get into the last bouldery moves of ‚Nevio‘. After all theses moves I found the last part quite hard, with all those crimps for the left hand.

The third annual Route Setter Magazine Photo Contest is back! Share your best indoor photos on the Gallery throughout the month of September for a chance to win raffle prizes and, if you're skilled enough to make it into the jury's top-three, you'll earn yourself a chunk of the 2700€ cash purse and maybe even a spot on the magazine's cover.

Gym Vibes is the theme for this year's contest, and the spotlight is on all of the elements of indoor climbing that fuel us: movement, routesetting, design and community. Go to the gallery to upload your submission and to vote for your favourites. The cash prize winners will be chosen by the Vertical-Life jury and announced with the release of RSM #6 in November! Raffle prizes by Saltic are up for grabs, too, among all participants AND voters!

About Route Setter Magazine
In 2016, Vertical-Life launched a software tool for gyms that focuses on routesetting management and analysis, with the basis for indoor ascent logging via the Vertical-Life app. As we talked with our customers - gym owners and setters from around the globe - we felt the need to create a dedicated space for their stories and the past, present and future of their craft. And so, the first edition of the Route Setter Magazine was published in 2018, the first publication dedicated solely to sharing knowledge and innovation in the field of routesetting and indoor climbing. Each year since, RSM covers industry developments and the stories and perspectives of leading routesetters and gym professionals from around the globe. Click here for more information about the Route Setter Magazine, and good luck!